Patent 10575159 was granted and assigned to Signify on February, 2020 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A standardized protocol defines that, when an initiator node is not already joined to a wireless network, and initiates a linking operation between the initiator node a second node, then this will create a new wireless network. According to the disclosure, a field of one of the standardized messages is adapted, and the adapted message is sent from the initiator node to the second node, in order to indicate that the adapted message is in fact a request for the initiator node to join an existing wireless network, to which the second node is already joined. The field in question is a field which the standardized protocol allows to be varied for application specific purposes. In response to the adapted message, the initiator receives back an invitation message inviting the initiator node to join the existing network; and in response to the invitation message, the initiator joins the existing network.